So why were there only four gay-oriented media booths (and one honest-to-Sappho lesbian-media booth) at this year's AVN Adult Entertainment Expo? That's a significant drop from last year's 12 companies showcasing male-male porn product, which included such household names (in gay porn-consuming households) as director/producer/drag queen Chi Chi LaRue and actor/screenwriter/director Chris Steele.

If you blinked, you might have missed the so-called GayVN section of the expo, although the Latino models on the posters for the Flava Works company could just about poke your eye out.

Minding his booth quaintly stocked with DVD porn titles is Pritam Sinha, CEO of California-based Pacific Sun Entertainment, which, like many porn studios, recently made a deal to provide a pay-per-minute streaming video service. Sinha says that many of his colleagues weighed the costs against the return of traveling to AVN, and said that many opted to wait for the GayVN Awards, "the Oscars of gay porn," which are given out on March 28 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. But the awards ceremony is not a business confab.

"That's why AVN is so important," insists Sinha. "It's the only place to meet new clients, and the only place to touch base and shake hands with an existing client." By clients, he means video store owners, most of whom are straight, but who carry a percentage of gay product.